Speculative Fiction—an all-encompassing genre created to describe stories of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and other stories that have an element of “What if...” in them. A story in speculative fiction is one that adds an element of the unreal, or asks, what would become of our society if history took a different direction at some important event? Fiction with a little something extra thrown in.—William D. Richards

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Saturday, February 28, 2015

It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up
of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month,
though some January books I missed the last time around snuck in as
well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far,
most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for
future editions.

Beautiful and impoverished, Lauren Vasquez joined the United States
military in her youth. She never expected to witness the destruction of
Earth. In the year 2131, nuclear and chemical war fueled by religion
obliterates all of civilization. Trapped in underground bunkers Lauren
and other survivors face homicidal artificial intelligence and
fabricated metal assassins who police their new dystopian reality. An
unplanned pregnancy by a sociopath further complicates her situation and
Lauren will do whatever it takes to protect her unborn child. She holds
on to the dream that her baby will not be formed with the emptiness of
the father. Explore a possible future of human and synthetic beings as
Vasquez enters, survives, and fights to find an exit from the ruined
land. You will question the origin of life and embrace the dreams of
androids. This is a powerful story about the mystery of love, the
finality of death, and the struggle to find hope in a devastated world.
Exit Ruinland contains the first four books in the Ruinland series.

Anne has always thought of herself as middling. Middling looks,
middling position in the form, middling magical Gift and just a middling
curve to the tip of her ears.

Her best friend, Lady Emmeline Eversleigh, commonly known as Kitty,
is not middling anything. And when Kitty drags Anne into playing a Saint
Valentine’s Day prank of truly wicked–and magical–proportions on one of
the prefects, Anne finds herself in more than a middling muddle of
trouble.

The Premier Imperial Bank of Houshou is the financial
institute of choice for the rich and the crooked of the Fifth Human
Empire. The bank boosts a two thousand year history of excellent but
discreet service and its vaults and computers are thought to be
impenetrable.

However, the Premier Imperial Bank of Houshou has not
counted on Ethan Summerton and Holly di Marco, ex-aristocrat and
ex-mercenary respectively, finding a way to breach its impenetrable
security system and redirect the ill-gotten gains stored at the bank to
the coffers of the Galactic Rebellion.

On the other hand, Holly and Ethan, whose murdered family was among the select clientele of the bank, have not counted on the Premier Imperial Bank of Houshou‘s rather eccentric idea of good customer service.

Two years ago a new medical nanite advance divided humanity into
three types: humans, deaders and the frightening in-betweeners that
crave human flesh. Emily’s world has grown quiet and ordered, her day
bounded by mornings killing deaders at her fence and nights huddled
alone in a warehouse office. She’s begun to believe life will always be
this way, alone with the dead or fighting in-betweeners for her life.
But even that life is better than the alternative.

Everything changes when one of the deaders at the gate isn’t a deader
at all. He’s an in-betweener different from any Emily has seen
before…and he has a message.

The In-Betweener is book one of the Between Life and Death series. Book two, Forever Between, will release in March 2015. Book three, Between Life and Death, is scheduled for release in May 2015.

The Between Life and Death series is suitable for ages 16 and up, with occasional violence and mild language.

Rue Darrow is a newly made vampire, and she’s alone in New Orleans,
no boyfriend, no son, and no friends. All she sees is an eternity spent
working at menial jobs just to pay the bills, hunting where it’s safe,
and holding onto the her flagging human emotions.

Then Rue saves the life of a man in a dark alley. What she didn’t
realize was the man was Fae, and the attackers were demons. The grateful
Fae wants to hire Rue to get back a treasure that was stolen from him,
but he won’t tell her what it is. Rue, who has never been in a fight in
her life–before the alley scuffle–is thrust into a new, darker world
where there are not only Fae but werewolves, demons, unidentified
creatures, and even her old “buddy” Death.

Rue’s not sure if she should take on the job, but well, it beats shift work.

Lieutenant Callum Harper hadn’t intended on punching his commanding
officer quite so hard. But maybe it wasn’t such a bad turn of events.
Court-martialed and dumped on a reject raft bound for Earth, Cal feels
optimistic about a life where getting blown up, shot, or even eaten is
altogether less of a concern. And, more importantly, a life where the
only person he’s responsible for is himself.

Unfortunately, fate doesn’t favour the mundane. Crash-landing on a
lethal planet, and with technology failing all around him, Cal must take
his fellow passengers under his wing in order to survive and unravel
the reasons behind their situation.

But the cause is far worse than any of them could have imagined, for
theirs is a small part of a much larger crisis. Colonized space is under
attack. Humanity is on the verge of chaos. And those who enjoy such
anarchy are already beginning to thrive.

Yet Cal and his new companions will discover that mankind isn’t the true threat” – not by a long shot.

When a love-crazed gremlin kidnaps pixie waitress Mandy, Michiko
Koyama, a.k.a. the Monkey Queen, and her partner in adventure Beth
McGill journey to Faerie to rescue their friend. Circumstances force
them to ally with the crew of a pirate airship, led by the mysterious
Captain Ash. Dangers await them in the sky, on the ground and in their
hearts.

And an old enemy waits for them, his trap set and ready to be sprung…and it could mean the end of the Monkey Queen.

Renardo and his brothers are up to their eyeballs in debt, with one
last chance to save their merchant business (and their gonads) from the
moneylender. The great city of Tebos is holding its Festival of Song in
three days’ time, and they have a wagonload of songbirds to sell.

There’s just one large, man-eating problem: the bored sphinx who
guards the city’s gates, and her deadly riddle game. Renardo doesn’t
even want to be a merchant, but somehow it falls to him to outwit the
sphinx.

When Shannon wakes up in the middle of a forest, confused and
disoriented from her sudden and unexpected death, she follows a path
that leads to a small, dilapidated town full of silent spirits who
repeat the same tasks over and over again, completely unaware of their
surroundings. And the worst part? She might be trapped there forever.

She’s alone and terrified until she runs into Ben, a charming but
cautious man from Victorian England who’s been trapped in the town since
his death in 1894. He tells her she’s the only person who’s spoken to
him since he arrived. With his experience and her creativity, will they
be able to find a way out of the town and into a better afterlife?

“The Gate” is the beginning of an emotional and haunting story that
depicts a budding romance between two people who never met in life, and
can only be united in death.

This is Part 1 of a series of novelettes, and is approximately 9,000 words.

Cowboys and gunslingers meet wizards in this high fantasy series
inspired by the American Wild West. Silas Vendine is a mage and bounty
hunter, on the hunt for renegade mages. He’s also a freedom fighter,
sworn to protect the non-magical people of the Wildings from ambitious
mages both lawless and lawful. In his line of work, Silas knows to
expect the unexpected, but he never expected to end up with a partner
like Lainie Banfrey, a young woman born in the Wildings who is both
drawn to and terrified of her own developing magical powers.

Silas and Lainie have defeated the dangerous rogue mage who brought
Lainie’s hometown to the brink of open warfare. But the town of
Bitterbush Springs isn’t big enough for two wizards, or even one, so
they’ve hit the trail. Then Silas gets word that another mage hunter
down in the dry and desolate Bads is onto something big and needs
backup. He and Lainie head into the badlands only to find one mage
hunter dead and another one missing… And Silas could be next.

The first book in a fantasy novella series takes place in the Nether
Realm featuring a cadre of rogue black elven intelligence operatives
believing black elves should return to the surface to rule the Earth
Realm like they did nearly two thousand years ago.

Rynlee Nalis is a demon hunter. She is a Purator, belonging to an
organization who slay demons to serve their King. Even though she’s a
candidate to succeed the High Purator, eighteen-year-old Rynlee doesn’t
want the responsibility.

Her entire world is turned upside down when Jeynen shows up at the
temple that is her school and home. She thought he died five years ago. And he has no idea who she is.

When an assassin comes for Jeynen and he manages to flee for his
life, Rynlee rushes after him. As she tries to discover the truth about
him, she stumbles onto an ancient prophecy and challenges those who want
to destroy the balance of magic.

Carus is only fifteen but since their mum disappeared, looking after
her little sister Mitch is her job. There’s nobody else. Not in their
house and not outside, either. There’s something out there, scratching
and scraping at the windows.

In a world very much like our own Victorian England, the country of
Dalanine is at war. The implacable, unstoppable Despot has been pushing
northward for over a year, conquering everything in his path with
military and magical force, leaving nothing but destruction in his wake.
For Evon Lorantis, Dalanine’s most promising young magician, the war
represents the same kind of work he’s always done, inventing and
developing new spells for his country’s defense. But as good as he is,
he’s still stumped by the mystery the government’s department of Home
Defense brings him: a rash of spontaneously occurring fires, hotter than
any natural force can produce, melting stone and vaporizing flesh
wherever they strike. Home Defense believes it’s a weapon that will
finally defeat the Despot. And they want Evon to harness it.

In investigating the problem, Evon discovers these fires are no
accident; there’s a magician behind them, a woman using the fire to
prosecute justice on her own terms. Evon sets off on a journey across
Dalanine to track down this rogue magician, hoping to persuade her to
turn aside from her vigilante crusade to serve her country, afraid of
finding only a madwoman at the end of his quest. But the woman he does
find is nothing like he expected, the mystery far greater—and older—than
he’d imagined, and the secret of the fire more potent than anyone could
have guessed. As Evon attempts to untangle fact from myth, what began
as an assignment becomes a challenge that will require every ounce of
magical ability he has—and will irrevocably change the course of his
life.

It began as a fever of unknown origin that its victims dubbed “the
Heat,” but as it burned through most of the world’s population, it
became known simply as “the Dying.” And for those left behind, the
struggle has just begun….

In the aftermath of the Dying, survivor Jessica Monroe is protected
and guided by the gentle voice of an invisible being she thinks of as
her guardian angel. When she reaches the sanctuary he’s provided for
her, however, she realizes that her unseen companion is no angel at all.
The destruction of humanity was only the first step in a much larger
plan, and now Jessica must struggle to discover her own role in a
frightening new world where everything has changed.

Bruton is a community struggling to survive – and to retain some of
the values of the old world. Led by tough former lawyer Helen Locke,
it’s a small town where people struggle to remain civilized, to keep
their technology and to survive. Until Tom Milkins shows up – and Locke
knows he’s trouble right away. When a young scout is brutally murdered,
it’s clear that Bruton – and Locke – might have more than they bargained
for. Can they keep the light of civilization in a world full of wild
children and dangerous, patriarchal men?

A DRAGON IS BORN
“Come, Little Dragon. The sun rises, and so must you.”
The Scion King sits Riverdale’s throne.
Rebels mass near the Western Sea.
Having lost everything,
Asher flees to the edge of the broken realm,
where he must find redemption
or die alone.

Ships are disappearing in subspace. Traders, rebels, pirates, and
even military vessels are losing their way in the Big Nothing that makes
space travel possible. Deep-cover agent Sethran Kada joins the
investigation after his own navigator, Ciela, barely escapes the void
with her mind intact. It soon becomes clear that this subspace trap is
more than some natural phenomenon,

Seth’s search for answers leads him to a brutal penal colony on the
brink of revolt, and uncovers a plot to destroy an entire planet. When
evidence points to the return of the dangerous subspace entities known
as Dyads, Air Command mobilizes to annihilate the threat at any cost.

Seth and Ciela pursue a Dyad who has infiltrated a key research
complex where they discover that the inexorable subspace peril will not
just threaten a single planet. It will mean the end of interstellar
travel and destroy their Commonwealth civilization.

“What we have here is a very high-quality junkie novel that happens
to be about a unique case of vampirism.” —Evan Clark, author of Movers

WHEN WORN-OUT MUSICIAN DAN FERRY decides to take a shortcut back to
the band’s hotel, he picks the wrong dark alley to go down. Within days
of being attacked by a bat-like creature, he becomes consumed with the
need to drink human blood. Terrified of what will happen if he doesn’t
get his fix–and terrified of what he’ll do to get it–he turns to his
best friend and bandmate, Ray Ford, for help. But what the two don’t
know as they try to keep Dan’s situation quiet is that the parasite
driving Dan’s addiction has the potential to wipe out humankind.

Poignant and terrifying, heartfelt and ingenious, Suckers is a story of sacrifice and friendship in the face of an alien contagion that threatens to destroy humanity.

The government has collapsed, RomaCorp is rising in its place, and
Weber Rexall threw the first punch in a fight with Roma that he and his
friends weren’t ready to finish. With Roma looking for him, he’s fled
New Eden for the Outer West, hoping to give his friends time to prepare
for an inevitable second round. He just never expected that to take two
years.

Scratching out a new life far from home, Rexall thought he had longer
to stay out of Roma’s reach. But with a hefty reward on his head,
desperate thugs are eager to turn him in, and a relentless Roma security
agent he knows all too well has come to bring him back.

Rexall could run again, but RomaCorp won’t stop unless he can finish
the fight he started. Yet to do that, he needs more help and resources
than the Outer West can offer–and if he fails a second time, there won’t
be a third.

Sean is happy with his mate, Tom. As far as he’s concerned, life is
golden. Except for when it isn’t. Their work is dangerous. While Sean’s
recovering from his most recent injury, he hears a little girl in his
head, calling for help. And his wolf side is acting up: too sensitive,
too vulnerable. He needs Tom more than ever, especially when it means
facing his family and old wounds. Even if things are never truly right
for his wolf side, at least he has a mate who will never leave
him…right?

Just as Midshipman Alexis Carew thinks she’s found a place in the
Royal Navy, she’s transferred aboard H.M.S. Hermione. Her captain is a
Tartar, free with the cat o’ nine tails and who thinks girls have no
place aboard ship. The other midshipmen in the berth are no better. The
only advice she’s offered is to keep her head down and mouth shut –
things Alexis is rarely able to do.

When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, it’s up to six university
students and their experimental physics project to prevent the end of
civilization.

When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly
wrong, physics student Richard and his friends find that they have
accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal. They connect to an
alternate Earth with identical geology, but where humans never evolved.
They go panning for gold and become millionaires overnight, while
fantasizing about Nobel Prizes and patents.

Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts on Earth in an explosion
large enough to destroy civilization and kill half the planet. Richard
and his friends have less than an afternoon to get as many people as
possible across to Outland before Nebraska is covered in a lethal cloud
of ash.

Now Richard finds himself in charge of a disorganized and frightened
band of reluctant pioneers, on a world with none of the modern
infrastructure that people have come to depend on. Richard has been a
loner all his life, and has always wanted to be part of something
bigger– but this is far more than he bargained for. If he doesn’t get
this right, it’s not just the lives of the people in his care that could
be lost– it may very well be the end of human civilization.

First in the two-volume Epiphany series, The Golding
is a captivating story-within-a-story that alternates between the work
of an 18th-century author and the present-day lives of those who study
his book.
Rosetta Melki, part-time tarot reader, struggling sole parent and
full-time idealist, begins a reading group to examine a fantasy novel,
and discovers the book to be anything but fiction.

The book, written in the 1770s by Edward Lillibridge, is a hidden
history that reveals the true beginnings of the global monetary system.
Lillibridge’s tale surrounds ancients from a gold-obsessed empire and
the sprites they oppress: intuitive clan dwellers whose currency of
choice is kindness.

Whether discontent in rich and poor alike will ever make way for the
Currency of Kindness, whether anyone can believe enough in humanity’s
true ancient history to activate the dawn of a benevolent new era,
remains to be seen, but the time-crossing sprites of Lillibridge’s
descriptions have set their sights on Rosetta. Their attempts at
providing a companion to assist in the quest they have planned for her
leads to a clumsy introduction to Matthew Weissler, a feet-on-the-ground
finance executive who is disturbed to find he’s being followed by an
elf.

It would seem Matthew and Rosetta have nothing in common, and yet the
sprites believe if the two work together, a renaissance known as The
Silvering will occur. But someone from the empire of the past is intent
on preserving Earth’s pattern of pain, and is determined to prevent the
sprites from succeeding.

Sixteen-year-old Holly Bennett is a comic book nerd, a con artist,
and a shaman. Ever since her mom’s mind got stuck halfway between the
spirit world and ours, Holly’s been forced to act as the breadwinner of
the family. She uses her burgeoning shaman powers to set up fake
hauntings and “banish” the so-called ghosts from her wealthy classmates’
bedrooms. For a fee, of course.

But when actual spirits start manifesting, Holly discovers that other
shamans have come to town, summoning life-sucking spirits for their own
ends. And as her mom’s mind slips further away, Holly has to fight to
save her, and the rest of the town, before they get sucked into Lower
World permanently.

Fifteen-year-old Clio should have never been the Oracle of Sheehan.
That power is passed from mother to eldest daughter, and Clio is the
youngest of four sisters. But when her entire family is murdered by
Mannix, the king’s adviser, Clio is left all alone and heir to a power
she never wanted and doesn’t understand.

Hunted by Mannix, Clio seeks refuge in a foreign city where oracles
are absolutely forbidden. If she’s found out, she will be sacrificed
atop its great pyramid.

Clio has no choice but to win the trust of Riece, an enemy warrior.
Despite the growing feelings between them, Clio knows that if he finds
out who she really is, he won’t hesitate to kill her.

Clio tries to hide her budding powers, longing to be a normal girl
who can fall in love, but the visions she has of Mannix bringing a
barbarian army into Sheehan torture her conscience. She alone has the
strength and foresight to stop him, but only if she can embrace her
destiny and sacrifice everything.

It’s the Summer Solstice and it’s a full moon too. Natural Witch
Emily Rand has been doing her best to keep her distance from gorgeous
Werewolf Aaron Fletcher, but fate has other plans. Fletch’s new pack
Alpha has heard of Emily’s powers and is coming for her. He wants to
bond his wolf to her witch and make himself the most powerful Werewolf
in Britain. Can Emily and Fletch combine forces to outsmart the Alpha
before the Solstice magic takes away their choice? Emily has never had
great control over her powers and being forced into a battle to stop the
Alpha can only result in complete mayhem.

Sviska is an assassin questioning the sanctity of his lifetime of
bloodshed in service to an ancient sect. Perceiving their acts have
become random and senseless, he refuses to murder a young child. He
wishes to leave his life with the Order, but they have another
assignment for him and if he refuses this too, he will be killed.

Sent to an isolated mountain city called Elinathrond, Sviska finds a
place where a plague is rampant; a wine used to prevent the ailment has
run out. Sviska’s task is to ferment a medicinal wine for the people and
it is here he discovers that magic, an extinct force in his lands, is
very much alive. But why the Order would send him here to procure this
life saving elixir for those they wish dead, confuses him.

In this last refuge for magical peoples, a weakening spell exposes more
of them to the sickness with every moment. Rumors are spreading that the
city is no longer safe, and a malicious evil is growing beneath the
streets. If he fails to procure the wine, Elinathrond faces desolation,
but the death of the last winemaker was no accident, and Sviska may be
next.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

About Shift of Time:

Rue Darrow is a newly made vampire, and she's alone in New Orleans, no
boyfriend, no son, and no friends. All she sees is an eternity spent
working at menial jobs just to pay the bills, hunting where it's safe,
and holding onto the her flagging human emotions.

Then Rue saves the life of a man in a dark alley. What she didn't
realize was the man was Fae, and the attackers were demons. The grateful
Fae wants to hire Rue to get back a treasure that was stolen from him,
but he won't tell her what it is. Rue, who has never been in a fight in
her life--before the alley scuffle--is thrust into a new, darker world
where there are not only Fae but werewolves, demons, unidentified
creatures, and even her old "buddy" Death.

Rue's not sure if she should take on the job, but well, it beats shift work.

Excerpt:

“Rue!”

I
stirred from my thoughts and focused on the manager. His high color indicated
he had called my name more than once, and I detected an elevated heartbeat. I
didn’t center on it because the pulse from a human heart was like waving candy
before a child. Best to focus on the manager’s expression of annoyance.

“Present.”

A
few snickers rose from the crowd. Did I mention vampirism brings on sarcasm?
Truly, it does. Scout’s honor.

The
manager’s temperature crept higher. “I need to switch around your schedule for
tomorrow through the rest of the week.”

I
had no problem with this and was used to working the desk, acting as a bellman,
and even washing dishes in the kitchen. I did it to get paid. The jobs were
menial, and I had one requirement.

The
manager flipped through the clipboard pages and scratched down some
information. “Lloyd’s going on vacation, so you’ll fill in. He works from six
a.m. until two p.m., so tomorrow—”

“No.”

Heads
swiveled in my direction. I froze, realized I stood too still, and shifted my weight to the other foot. The manager
threatened to pop a capillary. I hoped he wouldn’t.

“Excuse
me?”

I
tried not to stare at the bulging vein in his forehead.

“You’ll
work where I place you. Everyone here understands hours change. Sometimes you
work early, sometimes afternoon or overnight. We don’t play favorites, and everyone pays their dues.”

I
could talk to him later and change his mind. For some reason, my glamouring worked
perfectly when convincing people to forget I drank their blood. Other times,
not so much. Either I flubbed what I intended to say, or I tried too hard, and I’ll
just say, I could use a little glamouring on myself to forget those incidents. If
you’ll recall I have never killed a human. Let’s enjoy that stainless record
and move on.

Someone
elbowed me, and I glanced over to find it was Carl. His eyes were round, and
the smile was absent from his face. “Say okay, or he’ll fire you,” he whispered.
“He’s in a terrible mood.”

I
turned to the manager. The room lay in silence as everyone listened to the
argument play out. “I will work any position,” I said, my voice more deadpan
than I had meant it to be. “I don’t work days. I’m a night owl, and it
shouldn’t be a problem since most people like the day shift.”

“It
is a problem!”

I
knew this wasn’t going to end well for me, mainly because we were in a room
full of his subordinates, and men tended to have that darn thing called an ego
that they were bound and determined to protect. He stabbed the pen he held in
my direction.

“You’re
going to take over Lloyd’s hours permanently,
or you’re fired.”

Work
the day shift in a sunlit lobby, not to mention frequently running out to the
driveway to assist guests? He must be joking.

About Audrey Claire:

Audrey Claire is the author of contemporary and urban fantasy
mysteries. She is the mother of two grown sons and lives in the south of
the United States. She enjoys traveling and reading. One day, she will
be brave enough to live overseas and have lots of adventures. For now,
everything is in her imagination, but that can be fun too!

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

These days, most writers are glued to their
laptops, tablets, and/or e-readers. A few still swear by print books and
typewriters, the question is: Do you move at all?

Actually, I
move quite a bit. My wife and I have a little girl who is almost 3. She is nothing
but energy. Once I get home from work I’m either chasing her around the park
across the street or giving her horsey rides around the living room or playing
some other game she’s made up that evening. But it’s great. She’s amazing. I
didn’t think being a dad would be this much fun, but it really is. It’s
fascinating to watch her learn and discover and make connections. And it’s
great that I appreciate that since we are about to start over. Baby two comes
in June.

Apple or PC?

In a
previous life I worked in newspapers. I wound up on the production side of the
business and was tangentially connected to all of the artists and
photographers. I got a real appreciation for Apple watching all of them work.
But, for myself, I’m a PC guy. I do words. I have two requirements of my
computer: Have a decent word processor (Or have one available) and don’t cost
me a month’s mortgage when I buy you. For all of the great things about Apple,
their computers are expensive.

Do you use Scrivener or Word?

Being a PC
guy, I use Word. Like Apple, I know there are some great things about
Scrivener. Really great. But I’m a creature of habit, and this creature has
used Word for too long to change now.

Do you have any pets? Do they influence your
writing?

We have a
chocolate Labrador named Molly, and she’s the best. She’s still a big puppy.
The people we’ve talked to say that we are coming up to the point when she’ll
calm down. Honestly, I don’t know if I want her to calm down. Yes, she can get
on my nerves, but I’ll miss her happy-go-lucky personality that she has right
now. As far as influencing my writing, I’m sure she does. I never stopped to
think about it, but I don’t see how she couldn’t.

Would you rather see your stories on the big
screen or the little screen?

Unfair
question. I’d imagine everyone says “I’ll take both.” But if you make me pick
then I’ll take small screen. I like that the story can be open-ended in
television. Plus, the world my stories take place in is big enough that it’d be
interesting to see where someone else takes things once they have moved past my
original concepts.

Are you hooked on any science fiction or
fantasy TV shows? If so, which one(s)?

I try not
to get too attached to anything genre related on TV. Seems like when I do they
all get cancelled.

Almost
Human

Awake

Life on
Mars

I know
there are others, but my track record is pretty lousy. So now I wait for shows
to get a season or two in before picking them up on Netflix or another similar
service. I may try Agents of Shield soon. And Helix. And no one will kick me
out if I admit to never having seen Firefly, right? I need to watch that one as
well.

Do you own copies of Peter Jackson’s Lord of
the Rings DVDs? The extended version? Do you ever watch them?

There are
copies of this in my house. They belong to my wife. I bought them for her as a
gift. We may have watched them once or twice. We do, however, stop and watch
them when we come across them on TV. The Lord of the Rings trilogy and
traditional fantasy in general is really my wife’s thing. I enjoy it, but not
in the same way.

Have you seen the first two parts of the The
Hobbit? Are you planning to see the final instalment?

I have seen
all three parts of The Hobbit, and I enjoyed them all. The second was my
favorite. Of course, it was long, but all those movies are long. That one,
though, felt like a complete tale. I don’t think I can say that about the
others. That’s especially true about the third one. You had the satisfaction of
wrapping up the story, but really the movie felt like set piece after set
piece.

Your New Eden/Rexall
Cycle series is dystopian science fiction. What is it that draws you to
dystopian fiction?

For me it’s all about the setting. Even if the
plot of the story is man against man, there’s an underlying man against nature
that’s still there. The world these characters are living in is always changing
in ways that, at the end of the day, could kill our antagonist. In my stories,
these people are at the lowest point they can get. They are just struggling for
survival. So there’s a challenge there as a writer to not bring a little hope
to what may seem like a hopeless situation. I think I did that in the first two
books of my New Eden series. At least, I hope I did.

You write both
dystopian science fiction and urban fantasy, both subgenres that are currently
experiencing something of a boom. So what is your favourite dystopian novel or
respectively your favourite urban fantasy novel not written by yourself?

There are a series of YA books that I love:
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. He’s a pre-teen criminal mastermind who goes up
against fairy named Holly Short. I found them by chance on a staff
recommendations shelf at a local bookstore. I read all of them quickly.

I think I love them because they are pure
story. If it doesn’t move the plot forward it’s not there. No tangents of
introspection. No heart-warming side stories. It’s just the main story. And
they are fun stories.

Are you a Luddite? Or do you prefer to be on
the bleeding edge of technology?

I’m not a
luddite, and I’m not an early adopter. Like a lot of folks, I’m probably
somewhere on the spectrum in between. I will jump on a technology a few
generations in so many of the bugs and problems can be worked out. I don’t want
to pay to be a beta tester.

I will
admit to probably adopting a lot of technologies later than I’d actually like
to, but a lot of that has to do with price. I can have a hard time justifying
expenses to myself, especially those that I see as going to a want rather than
a need.

Now, if my
books became crazy successful I’ll want to come back and change this answer.
With a bit more disposable income I could see me becoming an early adopter.

Have you ever been to Starbucks or any other
coffee shop?

It’s weird.
I spent the first 15 years of my working life in newspapers, where they
practically install a coffee-filled IV into your arm when you start. For some
reason, though, I just never took to drinking it. Something about the taste
that I don’t like. Well, didn’t like. I do drink coffee now, but it’s only
occasionally. When I do, I like it to taste as much like hot chocolate as
possible.

So, to
answer the question, I have been to Starbucks. My wife has actually started
buying me Starbucks gift cards so I can satisfy my coffee craving. I also
volunteer at my church a few Sundays a month. We have a coffee shop there, and
I’ll buy something most weeks.

Something
to note, I’ve never written at a Starbucks or any other coffee shop. Closest
I’ve ever come to that kind of public writing was at the library where I could
take a bottle of soda to my desk with me. It was actually very productive.

Do you do Yoga? Meditation? or Deep Breathing?
Does it help you cope?

I don’t do
any of those things, but I do pray. Like I mentioned in the answer about coffee,
I’m a churchgoer. My faith has helped get me through a couple of layoffs and
the other challenges that life can throw at you, and it’s very important to me.

Do you consider yourself a slave to the muse?

We tend to
want to romanticize the creative process. Like there is some sort of magic to
it. In reality, it’s all about butt in chair. Writing, and I’d imagine almost
any other artform is, gets easier the more you do it. And I’ve found that when
something is easy, the muse tends to show up more frequently. But, to answer
the question, no. I don’t consider myself a slave.

About Jarrett Rush:

Jarrett Rush lives outside of Dallas with his
wife, Gina, their daughter, Ellie, and an overly energetic chocolate
Labrador, Molly. When not chasing the
dog around the back yard, Jarrett likes to write stories about common
people put in uncommon situations. He tends toward darker stories, so
those uncommon situations usually involve guns and explosions. They may
also include a science fiction element.

He started writing as a
kid, but didn't pursue his dreams until he met Gina. She gave him the
push that he needed to make those dreams a reality.

When he's not
writing, Jarrett cheers on the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers and
lives out his own baseball dreams by playing rec-league softball.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

About Under the Stars of Faerie:

“You were right about her. She is a hero.”
When a love-crazed gremlin kidnaps pixie waitress Mandy, Michiko
Koyama, a.k.a. the Monkey Queen, and her partner in adventure Beth
McGill journey to Faerie to rescue their friend. Circumstances force
them to ally with the crew of a pirate airship, led by the mysterious
Captain Ash. Dangers await them in the sky, on the ground and in
their hearts.
And an old enemy waits for them, his trap set and ready to be
sprung...and it could mean the end of the Monkey Queen.

Excerpt:

The
view deck was already crowded. Many of the passengers had gathered
there, some at the railing to watch the departure, others settling
onto benches. Crew members, mostly pixies and gremlins, hurried past
in their ornate outfits. There was a crude but loud PA system, and
the announcer, who switched off between routine reminders and history
lessons, sounded almost as bored as the tour guide Beth had seen
earlier.

Beth
was definitely not bored. She and Michiko had staked out a spot right
along the rail. The wind was already strong, and would get stronger
as the airship took flight, so Michiko had removed the pillbox hat
she had been wearing under her seeming and tucked it in her pocket
before leaving the bedroom. Beth noticed that their seemings even
mimicked how the "clothes" they wore blew about in the
wind.

Then,
the bored spiel of the PA announcer was interrupted by a loud
whistle, which got almost everyone's attention and woke up a few of
the elderly or overworked passengers. The voice that followed was
clear and pleasant. "Good afternoon all," it said. "This
is your captain speaking. We'd like to welcome all of you on board.
Please prepare for departure."

Beth
could feel a faint vibration that quickly grew. She glanced back at
the walkway and saw crewmen untying the airship from the dock. Then,
the propellers kicked in, pushing the airship up and away from the
tower. Between the aerium in the frame and the hydrogen in the sealed
balloon, the airship didn't take too long to get to top speed.

Beth
could see the terminal, the other airships, the gloriously clear sky
above, and Dawnhome below her, and she tried to take it all in,
remember it all. She noticed the young pixie from the elevator was
near her, sitting on her father's shoulders, beaming with joy. Then,
she looked at Michiko, standing next to her, and saw that her
friend's smile mirrored the young pixie's, and her own. "You
were right!" Michiko said. "This is awesome!" Beth
nodded, too happy and thrilled to speak, as Folly's
Flight
climbed, banked left and headed north.

About Robert Dahlen:

Fantasy novelist, all-around wisecracker and penguin aficionado, Robert
Dahlen lives in California with lots of penguins (no surprise), a tablet
stuffed with e-books and works in progress, and a nice hat. He is
hopefully working on more Monkey Queen stories as you read this. And
FYI, his last name is pronounced "duh-LANE", as in "The rain in Spain
falls mainly on Dahlen," which made Henry Higgins cry bitter tears...

Monday, February 23, 2015

Carus is only fifteen but since
their mum disappeared, looking after her little sister Mitch is her job.
There’s nobody else. Not in their house and not outside, either. There’s
something out there, scratching and scraping at the windows.
The barricades will hold.
They have to.

Carus & Mitch is a novella with elements of
post-apocalyptic fiction, psychological horror and urban fantasy.
Fifteen-year-old Carus’s knowledge of the dangers of the outside world is
limited, so readers will need to piece together the mystery from her fragmented
memories.

Excerpt:

I’m
awake and upright and clutching the blankets. A name echoes from my dream.

Mitch.

Did
I shout my sister’s name when I was asleep? I glance at her bed. The blankets
are thrown back. It’s empty.

I
stand up and pull my own blanket around me against the cold. Underneath, I’m
still dressed from yesterday.

“Mitch!”
My voice is cracked and dry.

I
burst out of the bedroom and stumble down the stairs. The bare wood creaks and
splinters snag against my socks. The blanket trails behind me like a cape.

It’s
icily cold downstairs. The kitchen is empty and the dishes are laid out from
yesterday, licked clean of crumbs.

“Mitch!
This isn’t funny! Come here!” In a quieter voice I add, “Please.”

Sunlight
glows through the streaks on the kitchen window. I remember my dream. Sunbeams
dipping into water like loose coils of rope. The only noises I hear are the
whistling of the wind and low murmurs from beyond the library.

It
won’t do for Mitch to see me upset, when I find her. I’m her big sister, so it
stands to reason that I have to be the brave one. I pat the plaits in my hair.
Neat enough. I push at the heavy door to the dining room.

The
usual hubbub greets me. The smell of droppings makes my stomach heave. The
floor is a carpet of shifting grey and orange, lit only by the sunlight coming
through the door. Chickens cover every surface and fill the upturned packing
crates we use as nesting boxes. A few birds shuffle around my feet, making
exploratory pecks at my toes through my thick socks. One of the cockerels
watches from a vantage point on top of a crate.

A
long trough filled with straw is set in the centre of the table. There’s a
collection of freshly-laid eggs nestled in the straw. On each egg is a letter
drawn with felt-tipped pen. They spell out the message, HAPPY 15 BIRD DAY
CARUS.

“Surprise!”

I
turn. Mitch stands partially hidden behind the door.

“It
wasn’t me. It was the chickens,” she says, bouncing up and down. “Happy
birthday, Carus! I mean bird day.”

I’d
totally forgotten my birthday but Mitch is particular about keeping track of
the date. I manage a grin and pull my little sister into an embrace. Often,
lately, I’ve found myself surprised by her height. Surely she’s taller than
most seven-year-olds? That is, if there were any others to compare her to. One
of these days she will look just like me, a gawky, stringy teen. What will I
look like, by then?

“Thanks,
Mitch.”

The
chickens bustle around her feet as she leans over the feeding trough to a crate
tucked away at the back. It’s the only one we don’t remove eggs from for
trading.

I
try to peer into the crate too. “Anything?”

She
turns with a disconsolate look on her face. “The mum chickens are just sitting
there. I can’t even see the eggs.”

“Well,
that means it’s all working just right.”

“They
look sleepy. What if they’ve forgotten what to do?”

“Don’t
worry. They never forget. Mums just look after their kids without even thinking
about it. They couldn’t stop it if they tried.”

There’s
an awkward silence and I can’t think how to fill it. Mitch pulls away from the
incubation crate and hugs herself with both arms. I’ve seen her do that several
times recently and I’m not sure I know what it means. I slip my own arms around
her chest from behind and we stand like that for a bit, like interlocked
statues surrounded by the chickens.

I
speak quietly because my mouth is right by her ear. “It’s okay. It’s all going
to be okay.”

She
doesn’t say anything. Her breathing is like the swell of the wind.

I
stop myself from saying anything about the marked eggs. The letters will have
to be scrubbed off again before I can let them leave the house.

Tim
Major lives in Oxford in the UK with his wife and son. His love of speculative
fiction is the product of a childhood diet of classic Doctor Who episodes and
an early encounter with Triffids. Tim’s short stories have featured in Interzone and the Infinite Science Fiction anthology, among others.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

About The Family Business:

Renardo and his
brothers are up to their eyeballs in debt, with one last chance to save
their merchant business (and their gonads) from the moneylender. The
great city of Tebos is holding its Festival of
Song in three days’ time, and they have a wagonload of songbirds to
sell.

There’s just one
large, man-eating problem: the bored sphinx who guards the city’s gates,
and her deadly riddle game. Renardo doesn’t even want to be a merchant,
but somehow it falls to him to outwit the sphinx.
No pressure. All he has to do is come up with an unanswerable riddle.

A short story (4,000 words) for lovers of humorous fantasy.

Excerpt:

“I’m not asking riddles any more,” said the sphinx.

“Really?” The merchant raised his face from the dirt hopefully.

“Really.” The sphinx
shifted her wings, which jiggled her bare breasts in a most interesting
fashion. She saw the merchant’s gaze drift and frowned. “You shall ask
them instead.”

The merchant’s eyes shot back to her face, alarmed. “Me?”

“All of you.” The
sphinx’s nod took in the waiting caravans and the line of delegates
behind her current victim, all toting their heavy riddle books under
their arms. “Union regs only say I shall test each
traveller and admit the worthy to the city. There’s no rule that says I
have to ask the riddles. A person could get tired of creating riddles
after a few centuries, you know.” She sniffed. “No one appreciates the
work that goes into a good riddle.”

The merchant had too
much on his mind to sympathise. Like just how big the sphinx was close
up—bigger than a horse. Bigger than two horses, maybe. Not to mention
the size of her teeth.

“Well?” said the sphinx, her snake-like tail twitching impatiently.

“Well what, your graciousness?”

“Are you going to ask me a riddle or shall I just eat you straight off?”

The merchant scrambled back in alarm. “Just a minute, your ladyship.”

He reached for his riddle book and she growled. “And that’s another thing. No more riddle books.”

“No more—?” The merchant cast an anguished glance at his well-thumbed copy of
Riddle Me This. His father had presented it to him before his
first journey to Tebos, and it had served him well ever since, though
there had been that tense patch when the sphinx had decided that riddles
were passé, and knock-knock jokes would introduce
a little levity into the proceedings.

“Tick tick tick,”
said the sphinx. “Time is money, you know.” She yawned, luscious,
bee-stung lips pulling back to reveal wicked canines. Sweat sprang out
on the merchant’s brow.

“Um …”

The sphinx flowed to
her feet as the merchant hesitated. He scrambled backwards as she paced
towards him, his eyes riveted on her face. “No, please. Just a minute,
your magnificence. Mercy. Just—just—give
me a second.”

His foot slipped and
for a moment he windmilled on the edge of the precipice that looked
down over Tebos. She waited, crouched down so they were nose to nose,
till he stopped gasping.

“Lovely view,” he said with a sickly smile.

“The riddle, merchant.”

“What’s … what, um
…” His brain had seized with terror. He rummaged desperately through the
echoing spaces inside his skull for a riddle. Any riddle.

About Marina Finlayson:

Marina
Finlayson is a reformed wedding organist who now writes fantasy. She is
married and shares her Sydney home with three kids, a large collection
of dragon
statues and one very stupid dog with a death wish.

About the Speculative Fiction Showcase

We are a blog about all things indie science fiction, fantasy and horror. Read interviews with and guest posts by spec fic writers and keep current on news from the SFF world and the latest spec-fic releases.